Frequently asked questions

Our mailbox is often flooded with questions on various Pokemon GO topics, so we decided to create a FAQ page to answer most of those questions. If you have a question you think should be here, message us on our Facebook page.

Egg Questions

Can I hatch other regions’ exclusives from 10 KM Egg?

No, you can not. This was a long running myth that was debunked several times on reddit and finally confirmed as not possible by John Hanke, Niantic CEO on Twitter:
“@lady_maethoriel the eggs can only be found in their natural habitat.”

What Pokemon hatch from 10 KM Egg?

Nest Questions

What’s a Nest?

A nest is a location or area where a certain Pokemon species spawns regularly and in large quantities. A nest is usually easy to understand once you encounter it. Imagine 6-10 Charmanders spawning in the same area within 20 minutes. That’s a nest.

Nests used to spawn only first stages of evolution, however, since September 27 2016 , they have a chance to spawn advanced stages of Pokemon evolution

How do I find a Nest in Pokemon GO?

That’s a million dollar question! At this point in time, there is no automated mechanism to find Nests in Pokemon GO. They’re usually found by accident and that information is distributed among local trainers or on TheSilphRoad.TheSilphRoad is webpage where you see if there are any nests around your location and report if you found a Nest.

What are Nest Migrations?

Nest Migrations are observed changes in nest species. There were three big migrations so far – the latest one happened on September 26 2016. Migrations change the species a Nest spawns, they can add or remove nests and they influence all of the spawn mechanisms inside the game

Nest Migrations are world wide events

There are no Nests around me!

Yes, that’s the harsh reality for a lot of players. Nests are rare, very rare, and they usually stay unnoticed in rural areas due to low number of players. Even TheSilphRoad admits there are more Nests in metropolitan areas than elsewhere

Tracking Questions

Why does Niantic stop third party trackers from functioning?

Niantic had big problems with keeping Pokemon GO infrastructure up and running, and third party Pokemon trackers and maps were a big part of that problem. In their official blog post, they illustrated how much problems trackers created. See it for yourself, it’s quite surprising.

Ok, but there are still Pokemon GO Maps that work, right?

Of course there are! Pokemon GO development community is one the most resilient communities in the world. Here’s our favorite list:

Can I get banned for using a Pokemon GO Map?

Yes and no. Web based maps like FastPokeMap don’t require you to login, so that’s definitely no. Now, when using a map/tracker that requires you to log in, make sure you use a different account for that. You can get a throw away Pokemon Trainer account in less than a minute here.

What’s the state of in game tracker?

Sad and useless, we’re afraid. We are still waiting for an alternative to “three steps tracker” that disappeared in July 2016.

Gym Questions

What’s the best time to attack a Gym?

Although this answer is really relative to your area, we found that it’s usually to raid Gyms either early morning or really late in the evening. We suggest the following times:

01:00 – 03:00 at night, while most players go to sleep,

06:00 – 08:00 in the morning, while most players are still asleep,

14:00 – 16:00 is often good time, as it’s too early for evening players and it’s lunch time in a lot of areas

How do I defeat a Level 6 – 10 Gym alone?

Usually, we don’t advise to attack Gyms that are Level 6 and higher alone – the cost (in items) is too high and you waste a lot of time alone. However, if you insist on trying out your luck, here’s a short guide:

Make sure your Pokemon have similar Combat Power as the defending team

Dodge a lot and switch Pokemon often

How do I increase prestige of a Gym in Pokemon GO?

Increasing Gym prestige is simple – you need to train the gym. You can only increase Prestige in gyms that belong to your team. You train a gym by fighting with Pokemon that are inside. It doesn’t matter if you beat 1 or all of them – you still will get Prestige.

Do I get anything for increasing Gym Prestige?

You get a small amount of XP and that’s about it. Usually, you increase Gym Prestige in order to level up the gym and place your Pokemon inside for the daily Defender bonus.

Ehm… what is Bubble Strat?

Bubble Strat is a strategy for leveling Gyms and earning crazy amounts of XP without using any potions on reviews. So, it’s basically gym training on steroids. However, the strategy requires specific low level Pokemon and it’s quite challenging to pull of in the beginning.

The entire strategy is based around the fact you gain 500+ Prestige and 50+ XP for defeating a Gym Defender with a Pokemon with lesser Combat Power

Essentially, you place Pokemon in Gyms that can easily be defeated with your lower CP Pokemon

You gain added bonus for doing that – rinse and repeat.

If you’re interested into learning how to do Bubble Strat, visit Gamepress, the official inventor of the strategy

Random Tips and Tricks

You can tap the “Oh?” screen with two fingers to skip the hatch animation (thanks u/Robdog777 and u/Fuzati)

Tapping on the “transfer succeeded” banner dismisses it

Clicking on the compass aligns the view with north, clicking again dynamically moves the view to align with where your phone is facing

Swiping up during a gym battle brings up the switch Pokemon screen

There is a slider at the side of the Pokemon screen that allows you to scroll through the entire list without dragging up multiple times (thanks u/DynamoPro)

Press and hold the Pokeball menu button then drag and release on whichever thing you want to open, saving an extra tap (thanks u/Handtuch1)

If you tap to the left or right of a Pokemon’s CP number when looking at its details, you will navigate to the previous or next Pokemon in the list (thanks u/Nriqg)

Tapping multiple Pokemon at once in the heal/revive screens heals/revives every Pokemon tapped, so you don’t have to heal/revive individually (thanks u/johnsmusicbox)

If you tap the appraisal screen with 1, 2, or 3 fingers, it’ll skip that many screens. Caps at 3 fingers. (thanks u/pppeeepppsssiii)

Evolving a Pokemon awards you with one candy. So if you have a Squirtle and 124 candy, you’ll have the 100 for a Blastoise after evolving to Wartortle. (thanks u/iliketoast714)

On the map screen tap once then quickly press and hold to zoom in and out by moving your finger up and down (during the hold), an alternative to pinch to zoom. (thanks u/chrissulli13)

Clicking the Candy icon in the buddy screen allows you to see your buddy’s CP/Moves/Total Candy Count. (Thanks u/maulpets)

When you delete a Pokémon’s name a press “OK” it will revert to its default name (Thanks u/Fuzati)

Pokémon is Copyright Gamefreak, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company 2001-2016
All images and names owned and trademarked by Nintendo, Niantic, The Pokémon Company, and Gamefreak are property of their respective owners.